The Food, Beverage and Tobacco sectoral group accounted for most of the jobs created with 3,994 in the second half of 2017.

The manufacturing sector had seen recovery and minimal growth following the recession of 2016, aided mostly by government policies that relaxed foreign exchange restrictions and sought to make the operating environment more conducive, said the report.

According to MAN, output in the sector had grown from -2.54% in the fourth quarter of 2016 to 0.14% in the fourth quarter of 2017. This indicated a 2.68 percentage points increase over the period.

It also increased by 2.99 percentage points when compared to the -2.85% growth recorded in the preceding quarter.

With the increase in local sourcing of raw materials and more foreign exchange made available to operators, the sector will keep growing, the President, MAN, Dr. Frank Jacobs, said.